Ghost Stories for Christmas Volume 1 (3 x Blu-ray discs)

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Ghost Stories for Christmas with Christopher Lee - Number 13 (2000, 30 mins): Ronald Frame’s adaptation is brought to life by the horror maestro I think you are under the impression negatives must be 24fps. This is not the case. The negatives are whatever frame rate they were shot at. Newly recorded audio commentaries for Whistle and I’ll Come to You (1968) and A Warning to the Curious by TV historian Jon Dear Lost Hearts also makes use of Ralph Vaughan Williams's English Folk Song Suite and the hurdy-gurdy music of the ghostly Italian boy, who plays the tune L'amour De Moi. [32] The Treasure of Abbot Thomas was the only entry in the series to have its own original score. [20] Geoffrey Burgon's score consists of an organ, two countertenors and various unconventional percussion instruments; according to Clark, a "mixture of evensong and bicycle chains". [32] Films [ edit ] Original run (1971–1978) [ edit ] The Mezzotint, a ghost story for Christmas from M. R. James and Mark Gatiss, is announced". BBC Media Centre. 22 February 2021.

BBC's 2022 Christmas line up across TV Channels and BBC iPlayer announced". BBC Media Centre. 29 November 2022. Mark Gatiss's films The Tractate Middoth, The Dead Room, Martin's Close and The Mezzotint were released together as "Ghost Stories" in October 2022. A travelogue writer, Mr Wraxhall, becomes fascinated by the story of Count Magnus, the long-dead founder of a Swedish family who once made a journey to the Holy Land for less than holy reasons. [44]Newly recorded audio commentary forThe Treasure of Abbot Thomas by writer and TV historian Simon Farquhar

Cooke, Lez (2003). British Television Drama: A History. London: BFI Publishing. ISBN 978-0-85170-885-0. The supremely affable Clark, who directed seven of the BBC's Ghost Story for Christmasfilms, including three of the titles here, talks about how The Stalls of Barchesterallowed him to make the move from documentary to drama, his love of the writings of M.R. James, selecting his main location, casting Robert Hardy (also an M.R. James fan), and the importance of being able to frighten your audience.An archaeologist has a disturbing experience after borrowing a pair of binoculars belonging to an outcast local historian and venturing up a notorious landmark. [7] [34] The BBC's Ghost Stories for Christmas are the filmic equivalent of reading a ghost story by a warm fireplace on a cold night. As James' stories tend to do, each film takes its time building atmosphere and progressing the plot, ending with a finale that will send a shiver down the spine. Admittedly, contemporary audiences may find the films a little slow, but anyone with a fondness for ghost stories will find much to love in this ground-breaking 70s series. In two programmes from the BBC's four-episode series from 2000, Christopher Lee plays M.R. James in his role of provost of King's College Cambridge at the dawn of the last century and relates two of his ghost stories to a small gathering of masters and students as they sit sipping sherry around a coal fire on Christmas Eve. Gold-tinted visuals of Lee and his attentive, over-privileged audience are intermittently peppered with stylised imagery from the tales themselves, none of which is a problem when you have a storyteller as compelling as Christopher Lee. A constant joy to listen to, he is also worth watching for his sometimes visually expressive delivery. Even the sinister notes of music do not detract from these very fine readings. Before Clark's films came under the remit of the BBC Drama Department it commissioned a Christmas play from Nigel Kneale, an original ghost story called The Stone Tape, broadcast on Christmas Day 1972. With its modern setting, this is not generally included under the heading of A Ghost Story for Christmas [52] and was originally intended as an episode of the anthology Dead of Night. A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. [1] [2] With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16mm colour film. [3] The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas. [4]